If you’re not a Los Angeles Kings fan, you’re probably not too familiar with left wing Scott Parse. Parse headed into this season poised to be a breakout candidate and with the Kings being a bit lacking a left wing, the opportunity was there for Parse to seize the day and become a force at forward in L.A.

Instead, Parse was felled by a hip injury that knocked him out of play for the first month of the year and he hasn’t played since November 15. Now he’s ready to play once again and has been activated from injured reserve declaring himself ready to go for Game 5 against San Jose that sees the Kings trailing 3-1 in the series.

If Parse wants to seize the day and make a big impression, doing so now would be the best way to do it. As Rich Hammond of L.A. Kings Insider shares, coach Terry Murray realizes there’s a huge risk playing a guy for the first time in five months in the middle of a playoff series.

“Yeah, probably. You could probably say a little bit of a risk, but you just have to take all the factors into consideration, and put him in a situation where you do take on a little bit of risk, but I look at the risk-reward part of it too. He’s a player who has been working very hard to get back at it. We tested him yesterday. His conditioning level is really good. I know the skill side of the game, with the puck on his stick, is good. He can give us some looks in the offensive zone. He can be a threat. He’s got some speed, quickness that can match up with their speed and quickness. So, again, a change is good sometimes, and I’m hoping that this one is.”

The Kings definitely need a change after hanging tough while still slumping against the Sharks. On the upside for L.A., the last time Parse played was against San Jose and he had a goal. The Kings would love to see him replicate that production and being on a line with Michal Handzus and Justin Williams will give him that opportunity.

It’s a desperate call but for a team that needs something to go right for them, it can’t hurt. The only question then comes for who would come out of the lineup in favor of Parse. Youngster Oscar Moller and tough guy Kevin Westgarth would be the leading candidates.

Of course the question with suspendable offenses in the playoffs is whether or not the punishment was harsh enough for the action. When it comes to the playoffs, punishment is always judged a bit differently since the games are that much more important. Sitting a player down for a play that might cost him two to three games in the regular season gets knocked down to one in the playoffs because that one game could swing the series. That’s not proper justification, that’s just how things seem to get handled.

In Stoll’s case, his absence is a crushing blow for the Kings at center. With Anze Kopitar already out, they’ll be down their top two pivots and now need to find a way to make it work for Game 2. Expect to see Michal Handzus and Trevor Lewis along with Brad Richardson to see more time on the ice with Stoll out and Hanzus to become the de facto face off man.

Taking Stoll’s spot on the roster for day is forward John Zeiler. With Zeiler and Oscar Moller the Kings have some options with what they want to do. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun tweets that Zeiler is likely going to see time on the fourth line at center. If the Kings can weather this storm without Stoll and steal Game 2 that gives them a huge swing of momentum heading back to L.A. for Game 3. If the Kings get blown out, Stoll’s dangerous and selfish play will haunt the Kings as they need to be as close to perfect as possible to take out San Jose.

If you’re curious as to where prospect Brayden Schenn might figure into all of this, it turns out that he’s going to Manchester and the AHL to try and help the Monarchs out in the playoffs. An opportunity like this coupled with their injuries up the middle made it seem like an ample opportunity to get Schenn involved, but GM Dean Lombardi is hesitant to break him out in this kind of situation with so little NHL experience.

The Los Angeles Kings are already playing in the playoffs shorthanded thanks to an ankle injury to Anze Kopitar and losing another centerman would do nothing to help them try to beat the Sharks in the first round of the playoffs. During last night’s 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose, Kings center Jarret Stoll delivered a hit from behind to Sharks defenseman Ian White that might see him getting a call from the NHL.

Stoll boarded White while he was looking to fish out the puck along the boards behind the San Jose net and ended up smashing Stoll’s head into the top of the boards where the dasher meets the glass. The ugly hit put White down and he was removed from the game and did not return. There was no penalty called on the play. (Video here)

“We did have a chance to look at it,” Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan said. “After the game we got a really good angle from right behind the glass. There was a camera right there and the good news for us is the league is looking at these types of things. They take them very serious. The bad news is we lost a very good defenseman that we count on.”

Ian White was playing in his first career playoff game and going out like this is unpleasant. For the Kings, should they lose Stoll to a suspension of some kind, youngster Oscar Moller would likely slot into his position in the lineup. Moller was a healthy scratch in Game 1 in favor of tough guy Kevin Westgarth.

Suspensions in the playoffs in the past have always been seemingly softer compared to regular season plays because the games have a much greater immediate impact on the season. Plays like this in the past would either net no suspension or a one game ban. With a hit like this and an apparent head injury to White, it seems likely that Stoll would see some sort of action taken against him. Losing Stoll for even a game really amps up the pressure on the Kings to find ways to score and with Kopitar out, that’s already hard enough.

Injuries are all a part of the game in hockey, and dealing with season-altering ones are never easy to deal with. We’ve seen the Pittsburgh Penguins do an extremely great job of handling the losses of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin this season and now the Los Angeles Kings will have to do without their top offensive threat Anze Kopitar.

Kopitar’s broken ankle suffered in yesterday’s game against Colorado has him on the shelf for at least the next six weeks which puts him out for the rest of the season and for most of the playoffs. The Kings have to find ways to keep winning to get themselves into the playoffs but how do you replace your best scorer? The Kings will have to do it with what they’ve already got and hope their current lineup can step up their play. Rich Hammond of L.A. Kings Insider shows us what the Kings lines looked like without Kopitar against Colorado.

The Kings are playing without 22-goal scorer Justin Williams as well as he’s out with a dislocated shoulder, an injury that when he does return could be re-aggravated suddenly and without much effort needed for it to happen. Ideally, the Kings would look for Andrei Loktionov to come up and try to supply the offense needed. The problem there is that he was hurt playing in the AHL and is unable to be called up.

Instead, the Kings might have to either plug in enforcer Kevin Westgarth on the fourth line or use a seventh defenseman in that role. That’s not the most encouraging situation to be in. Instead, the Kings are going to have to hope that guys like Jarrett Stoll and Michal Handzus can step up in their play at center and perhaps get youngsters Trevor Lewis and Oscar Moller to emerge with more ice time.

There’s no doubt that veterans like Dustin Brown and Ryan Smyth need to step up their games and shoulder the burden of carrying the offense, but the Kings could try to take a page out of Penguins coach Dan Bylsma’s book. With the losses the Pens have had, they’ve adapted their style into a much more aggressive forecheck and tightened things up defensively to the point the once run and gun Pens are almost boring to watch. Kings coach Terry Murray always stresses strict defensively tough play and we can certainly expect more of that from them now.

Will it work for them though? It’s tough to tell because so much of the offense ran through Kopitar and while the Kings have fought some offensive inconsistency, Kopitar’s been the one consistent guy. Things can go right for the Kings and they can get hot and make a run in the playoffs, but to win the Stanley Cup, Kopitar is a necessity. If the Kings can make a deep enough run and Kopitar’s condition improves, he might just be able to help them rally to go all the way. As it is for now, the pressure shifts to captain Dustin Brown and coach Terry Murray to help keep their high hopes alive in Hollywood.

No one knew the extent of Justin Williams’ injury after he was destroyed in the corner last night by Flames’ defenseman Robyn Regehr. From the moment he hit the glass, it didn’t look good for Williams or the Kings. He immediately skated off the ice holding his shoulder, walked down the tunnel, and never returned. The Kings ended up winning the game in a shootout, but the loss of Williams will have longer lasting effects than a single victory.

Today, the Kings organization announced that Williams dislocated his shoulder on the hit and will be out 3-4 weeks. If everything goes without a hitch, he should be available to the Kings near the end of the first round or the beginning of the second round. For a team battling for a playoff spot, assuming a first or second round return might be putting the cart before the horse. On the possibility of Williams coming back during the playoffs, Terry Murray explained the importance of caution:

“It will be a rehab process now. Give it a chance and see how it comes around. Obviously there will have to be a harness worn, as you come back and start to see if it’s going to work or not, and make a decision as to whether he can play or what it will be like after four weeks of rehab.”

For a team in desperate need of some goal scoring, this couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Kings are 1-1-1 over their last three, but have only mustered a total of 2 goals over the 190 minutes of playing time. For his part, Williams is second on the team in scoring with 22 goals and 35 assists for 57 points. Playing with Jarret Stoll and Ryan Smyth, he’s been the focal point of the Kings’ strong second line for the majority of the season.

Los Angeles has called up 22-year-old Oscar Moller from Manchester to replace the versatile Williams. He’s scored a total of 12 goals and 13 assists in his 78 game NHL career. This season, he put up three points (1g, 2a) in four games with the big club. While the right wing was down with the Monarchs in the AHL, he was able to score 23 goals in 59 games.

It’s probably a little too much to ask for the young Moller to step right in and fill Justin Williams’ skates in the middle of a playoff fight. If the Kings want to hold onto their playoff spot, they’re going to need everyone on the team to step up and put goals on the scoreboard. Terry Murray said that he’ll expect more from everyone—specifically calling out both Wayne Simmonds and Alexei Ponikarovsky. There’s no question the Kings would like for Ponikarovsky to improve on the 5 goals he’s scored this season; but more goals from guys like Ryan Smyth, Dustin Brown, Dustin Penner, and Jarret Stoll would go a long way towards filling the void as well.